Impact of Shared Decision-Making on Family Satisfaction With Intensive Care Services: 'Share With Care' has a New Meaning in ICU.
Margiben Tusharbhai Bhatt, Souvik Chaudhuri, Sunil Ravindranath and 4 others
PMID 39382903WHAT IT FOUND
Consistent information and frequent communication with doctors remained linked to ICU family satisfaction after other factors were considered.
Give families the same clear, honest picture each time, and update them often.
Key findings
01When other factors were considered together, consistent information (adjusted OR 3.856) and frequent communication with doctors (adjusted OR 2.221) remained independent predictors of family satisfaction.
02When each factor was considered alone, all 10 decision-making subscale items were associated with family satisfaction (P < 0.001).
03Satisfaction was not associated with number of decision-makers (P = 0.071) or previous ICU experience (P = 0.556).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The families were selected by convenience sampling, so they may not represent all ICU families. It was a single-center study, so the results may not apply to other hospitals or populations. The study measured family perceptions rather than testing a communication intervention, so it shows associations, not proof that communication caused satisfaction. Some surveys were missed when family bystanders were unavailable, unwilling, or had short stays. Only 6.25% of patients were discharged against medical advice and 12.2% opted for end-of-life care, so those groups are too small to guide practice.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest and received no financial support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the adjusted odds ratios as proof that more communication or consistent information causes higher family satisfaction. This was a single-center convenience survey of family perceptions, not a randomized intervention.